


The Reaper's Pet

by MechanicalRoseBud



Series: A New Cycle, A New Harvest [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Graphic abuse, M/M, Multi, The many forms of Harbinger, Violence, a lot of people die in this one, post AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:05:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4764359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MechanicalRoseBud/pseuds/MechanicalRoseBud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a continuation from my other story, Assuming Control, as it picks up pretty much right after it and goes into the aftermath of what happens. Shepard belongs to Harbinger but refuses to give in as he desperately tries to warn the next cycle of the Reaping. What new aliens have been established since his own cycle? How far and how desperate is Shepard to stop the Reapers and end his own elongated torment at hands of Harbinger. </p><p>He will travel to various planets, meet new aliens and try to rally people of all sorts once again to put a stop to the Reaping. Even as Harbinger seeks to regain his pet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Adjustment

**Author's Note:**

> Mass Effect and all their awesome characters don't belong to me! I gave myself quite a bit of leniency with Harbinger and the Reaper background to make it much darker. You can read about his altered past on the fanfiction that proceeds this one, Assuming Control and learn about one of his forms that I've given him/that he can take. This is a VERY dark series and will hit most if not all a lot of really dark bases.
> 
> Rape, non-con, a lot of violence, abuse(both physical and mental) and some other things as well. So please, if these things make you uncomfortable or sick don't read. I warned you! Enjoy!

“Your torment…is breathtaking.” Screams swallowed up the deep, vibrating voice as dark claws dragged slowly over taunt flesh. It gave sickeningly under claws as blood ran freely staining the body underneath. 

“Tell me…how much does it hurt? Is it painful?” Harbinger was fascinated, consumed in his obsession as he hummed at the sight before him. A well-built, firm body with arms bound to a chain attached to a ceiling and thighs spread for the Reaper violating him. Harbinger laid on a flat surface, idly stroking painful strained thighs forced to straddle him as he smiled sweetly. 

“How much more can you take before you break?” Harbinger sighed as he pulled bloodied hips harder onto the sharply ridged cock forcing inside of Shepard. The chain shrieked as it was strained, a dim sound in the fresh bout of screams as Shepard’s arm twisted crookedly to the side. 

“Monster…” Shepard’s voice was cracked and weak, barely above a whisper but it brought another growl in the depths of his chest as Harbinger sat up nuzzling into a bruised shoulder, as his marks jerked to life. Shepard’s vision ended as the darkness took over. The odd silky touch of the marks followed him into unconsciousness.  
Leon Shepard didn’t know where he was when he managed to open his eyes but it was disturbing. He was bound, attached to a wall filled with wires and connections all of them forced under his skin it was gruesome to see how his skin bulged with every cable inserted. What bothered him most was the feeling lost in his limbs, he could see his arms and legs but he couldn’t feel them. He could watch his fingers twitch or his legs jerk but the feeling was gone completely. It was…disheartening. 

Harbinger had done something to him as he could sense the Reaper in his mind always lurking in the depths of his thoughts. Was this what it was like to be indoctrinated? Always hearing and feeling the Reaper? Why was he bound up like this and not some mashed up goo in a machine like he had seen others done?  
Questions filled his head and he struggled against his bindings trying to find a weakness in them before he slammed into the ground grunting at the pain threaded throughout his body. 

“…” His puzzlement grew as he glanced at the strange contraption he had been held up in, it looked like just a bundle of wires and cables when he glanced at it as he moved away. He was wary it would snatch him back into place. The feeling in his limbs was distant and numb, but he managed to get to his feet to assess his condition.  
“Hmm,” holding out his arms he could see the flicker of lights under his flesh and long strips of a metallic substance along his sides. Experimentally he ran his hands over himself as a brief tap to his neck only confirmed that metallic substance was there also. Every spot his fingers touched blooms of light rippled and his heart began to sink. Harbinger had done something to him if the strange light under his skin was any indication. 

“What is this?” The sound of his own voice seemed alien and strained, but at least it was familiar that reassured Shepard somewhat as he stood there contemplating his body. His head felt heavy and Shepard felt an ache as he realized how much longer his hair had gotten. Strands of a silvery blue draped over his shoulder, it was past the short ponytail it had once been as it tickled the skin along his shoulder blades. 

“Shouldn’t just stand here like an idiot,” He chuckled slightly at his predicament and looked around, it appeared to be a small room with nothing but wires and cables thickly piled on the ground trailed toward where he had been held. Worry stained his thoughts briefly before he shook his head it wasn’t time to have those kind of thoughts taint his thinking.

He was at least partially grateful he wasn’t fully naked, as he was dressed in the barest only dressed in a very familiar pair of skin tight black shorts. The nostalgia was painful and Shepard clenched his fist tightly, he couldn’t stop the wave of memories. Their screams, the color of their blood, he couldn’t beat away the heat, the sweet burn of tears scorching his senses. 

He was mutely surprised he was still standing, though is legs shook badly and he viciously beat away the streaks drying on his face. A soldier must press on and Shepard locked his heart away as he stepped through sliding doors. It led out into an long, empty hallway, lights flicked all around as data streamed from various sides of the corridors. It appeared as a normal hallway with vents and railing along with a metal walkway but it seemed…so off.


	2. Harsh Realization

“No point in backing out now,” Shepard sighed as he whispered to himself but his voice carried down the hall and he winced as he stayed close to the wall. It was mostly out of force of habit, lights along the walkway didn’t give him any sort of shadows to hide himself in. A pressure hummed and tingled perversely in the back of his mind with every step, every motion in his body resonated with that hum. He could feel it, feel the sway and slow push all around him that gave away he was definitely on a ship of some sort. Nothing stationary gave him that mental sway and lull, it was intensified and filled his head clashing with the thrumming along his skull. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation but it dragged and made him feel sluggish as it began to grow louder, pounding in his ears.

“Fuck,” The further he stepped the more the pressure grew as he if he was being crushed slowly and the hum forced all rational thoughts from his head and he had to lean harder against the wall. He pressed on despite the lag and weight in his body.It felt as if it took hours to come to the large set of doors before him and the strain showed on Shepard’s face. The pressure had relented somewhat but the suddenness of moving after an unknown period of lethargy was intense. His muscles screamed and buckled with every additional step, but he fought it valiantly. Shepard wasn’t known to let his limits stop him from doing anything.

“Alright, big door, let’s see what’s on the other side.” Puzzled, Shepard stepped forward and the door didn’t budge an inch. Before he could think of anything else, he automatically lifted his hand and lights played across his fingers as he touched the door briefly. It slid open immediately and his expression soured as he briefly glanced at his hands. No lights at the moment.

Stepping in, the door slid closed as quickly as it had opened and Shepard wasn’t sure what he was looking at. The room was enormous as the walls spiraled out and up to a ceiling Shepard had to strain to see and it was open wide. Large, intricate screens circled the room as the machines whirled noiselessly as data flashed across their gigantic screens. Data floated in streams all around like intricate decorations streaked about. He could hear it…Hear the sweet, sultry call of all of it all around. The data sang in his mind and it filled his senses, resisting its call was heart-breaking as he denied it. Clutching his head and forcing its soft touch from his thoughts, it dimmed but it always remained in the back of his mind. It was painful, sparks of agony flickered behind his eyes. A punishment for denial to its call.

“Always fighting, Shepard.” His attention focused sharply on the source of the mocking voice and he froze. Terror pricked sharply at his thoughts as he gazed upon a magnificent pillar at the back of this…room. It was nothing but cables and wires curled tightly toward a single form whose eyes were nothing but slits of a glowering red. It was anchored by cables and thick cords wormed under thick, plate like flesh. Dark tan skin was ridged thickly along its chest and arms, familiar marks squirmed restlessly in agitation. Obsidian strands flickered across the humanoid’s vision and slits along its cheeks seemed to gape dangerously. Shepard wasn’t surprised to notice it hadn’t spoken through the slit along a ridged plate trailing between its red eyes, as he heard the deep voice whispering in his ears, flooding into his head. Every bit as invasive as the thrumming and hums of the ship that racked his skull. 

“Where is this?” Shepard broke the stark silence as the sharp gaze shifted and the humanoid figure stepped from its bindings as easily as rolling out of a bed. Sharp, long claws dyed a hideous black broke free of a particularly tight cable and talons dug deep in the metal scraping before the tall arch settled with its weight. Stepping toward Shepard the lean figure covered in armored plates towered at least a foot over Shepard and seemed to bleed with a sharp aura of commanding malice. 

“The reaper ship, Harbinger.” The voice boomed threateningly in Shepard’s mind as he inwardly shuddered before he frowned, “We’re inside of you?” The humanoid form seemed to contemplate answering before reaching and that menacing aura seemed to grow exponentionally. It was vicious and hard against Shepard’s mind, it was painful to stand as he clutched at his head shaking it hard to dispel the pain riling tightly in the back of his eyes. 

“You are my pet and you will learn your place, Shepard.” Screams filled his lungs as claws dragged across his face, the delicate burst of his eye sent his voice reeling into a vicious shriek. He threw himself to the ground holding onto his face as blood streamed between his fingers.


	3. Helpless

It was gone. Shepard couldn’t move as he remained where he had been standing and Harbinger’s claw hovered above him. He was still standing and his mind screamed at the vision that had buried itself deep in his conscious.

“How…” Harbinger’s laugh was acid and fed the flames of Shepard’s bitter anger even as he couldn’t move, his body frozen in place. It hadn’t really happened…He could still see but it felt as if it had. Was this a taste of what lay in store for him? This pain without marking? 

“My pet…I do not think you realize that I am inside of you.” Shepard’s eyes strained as he couldn’t look away from the red lights shimmering underneath the thick plates and when the white resonance inside of him responded. He could only feel horror, feel it thick in his veins and it froze in his throat, unable to scream. 

“Show me what you’ve become.” Shepard could only scream as the light underneath muscles began to burn brightly and his skin began to crack, opening to Harbinger’s command. He lifted his arms to push away the humanoid Reaper but it only brought everything to the forefront of his mind. 

His arms were open, gaping machines down to the bone it burned brightly with a white blue shine as synthetic machinery strummed along his muscles. Dark ooze gurgled as he watched…terror stuck in his throat at what he had become. He was seeing it with his own eyes. He was no longer human. Cables detached themselves and wiggled obscenely before Harbinger leaned closer. The cables eagerly sought out the plates slipping underneath as he could feel it. He could feel the cable brush into the soft, protected flesh and burrow into his body.

He was soft and warm inside, thin wires teased the cable as it spilt and splintered reaching in further as Shepard jerked away. Agony rushed through his body at the forced disconnection and he bit it back, unwilling to think he was going to reach further into that creature. Connect to him anymore intimately than he had been forced to. Harbinger simply watched, silent and his gaze steady.

“I’ll never be your slave!” Shepard spun sharply and watched as his arms shattered against the metal door behind it. The pain was indescribable he couldn’t feel the chill of the ground in the writhing agony. He could hear someone screaming, screaming until it was caught with a sickening gurgle of a torn throat. All he could comprehend were those eyes. Those burning slits that mocked him endlessly and reverting laugh filling his head. He welcomed the darkness that filled his vision and stole his conscious. 

That was Shepard’s only memory of freedom since he had been aboard Harbinger since that confrontation and his obvious motion to deny Harbinger’s attempt to link them. Ever since then he had been returned where he had woken the first time only now there was something surrounding him. A sort of curved wall prevented him from getting loose as he had previously done. Once more he couldn’t feel his limbs but now even his conscious was hazy, drifting hazily in and out. That strange bubble holding him in, guarding him was filled with something a thick substance. He could feel himself breathing in it, feel it inside of his body and straining his lungs.

It was sickening. He knew Harbinger would come and admire him, knew he was forcing his body to change more. Stealing away Shepard’s humanity wasn’t enough for him and he would force more of himself in his mind, a call echoing in his thoughts. Beckoning and challenging his will endlessly. Shepard resisted, he didn’t know how long he had been resisting but he felt like he was crumbling, falling apart inside into nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is short but fret not! I have more incoming!


	4. Captive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is longer and does contain some non-con elements, as in prepare your eyes for some semi-rape going down. So if you don't like that please redirect your eyeballs! You've been warned!  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time was nothing but torment as Shepard held weakly onto the threading hope he would escape the Reaper’s grasp. How could someone escape from a being with who they were trapped inside of? 

Slowly, Shepard began to become aware as the hazy fog over his mind cleared only in the slightest. He began to notice things one of them being the tight guard over his mouth with the sharp bit forcing the back of his jaws to remain agape. The second was the liquid surrounding him made everything feel weightless but he could feel the thrum of cables and energy pulsating through his being as clear as day while everything else felt murky. 

He wasn’t sure how much time passed before he was able to get a sense of himself. It had been painful at first, to open his eyes, as the gelatinous goo burned sharply when it touched his retinas. It was a slow excoriating process to adjust but once it was done, he could look around without the burning sensation. It shocked him to see how warped the room had become, or at least what he could see. There were large, multiple screens all around monitoring his vitals and processing every one of his functions into streams of data that idly floated around the room. 

The most startling change were the geth that suddenly began to populate the ship as he could see some walking down the halls during one of the rare moments he could gaze as far as the door to see it open and close. On occasion one would step into his room and check his vitals or even approach him to scan him more personally.

He wondered how he appeared to them in that room, his prison. Arms stretched out, buried beneath en mass of cables and wires dug deep under his skin rendering him incapable of moving an inch. They were deep in his body, tapped intimately into his nerves. There were cables, tubes of more of that gelatinous fluid being pumped inside of his body and binding locks along his spine to keep him in place. Apparently his freedom hadn’t been taken lightly to incur such heavy measures to keep him still.

If he looked down he just manage to see his legs but not much past his thighs were even visible as that part of him was wrapped in cables and wires as well. He tried not to notice how sections of his body were raised just the slightest as wires slid in and connected him to the mass of intricate, delicate machinery that permeated the ship.

He could feel the ship, which was his biggest worry. The gentle shift of engines and grind of machinery along with the pulsations of the zero core mainframe were ingrained into his very being. It gave him a disturbing, intricate intimacy to Harbinger’s inner workings even the chill of the icy depths of space wasn’t lost on his senses.  
Given this, he shouldn’t have been surprised when he opened his eyes and Harbinger stood before him one of those large, dark claws stroking across the shell of his imprisonment. His sharp, red eyes pierced through the barrier and pressed against his resistance firmly to make itself known.

“Your resistance is foolish, Shepard.” He shut his eyes against the invasive touch of Harbinger’s thoughts melding into his and could only twitch as Harbinger’s claws easily pressed through the barrier brushing against his restraints. Shepard could only glare in his direction, those eyes making it difficult to focus elsewhere as Harbinger’s claws pulled out slowly. He did something that made Shepard curious, Harbinger leaned against the barrier claws scratching along its surface as his forehead pressed against the cold shell.

Those sharp eyes slid shut and he seemed to relax against the shell before Shepard could feel something. A strange prickling sensation tingled up his spine, it began to fill his body exciting his nerves and his heart beat erratically at the humming pleasure. A soft, gurgling pressure filled his chest and set his nerves on fire, his body jerked as he shook his head. It was ecstasy. Pleasure filled his thoughts and stirred every pore on his body. His spine arched as he screamed behind the guard, mindlessly he leaned forward. Unaware his bindings had relaxed, as he leaned against Harbinger’s relaxed figure with the barrier between them. 

The shared connection, the thoughts between became nothing but a charge for the pleasure burning through their systems. Thin, hair length wires slid from under thick plates easily puncturing the shell, sliding along responsive nerves that tingled as they twined together. His spine arched at the responsive acceptance and Harbinger growled lowly claws dragging sharply against the shell, leaving hard scratches. 

Shepard’s body began to hum sweetly as the nano-machines that lay beneath his muscles and lined his flesh began to whirl, glowering with their soft white blue light. Harbinger drank it in, pulling back to gaze as Shepard’s body responded feverishly to his influence. A simple gaze, penetrating and deep could bend even the more resistance parts of Shepard to his will. Shepard was hopelessly bound to him, systems melded dangerously since he had assimilated the human.

“No longer human.” Harbinger verbally corrected himself as the stinging bittersweet tang of pleasure laced his own veins but he could withstand it, even with Shepard’s body crying out so enticingly before him. The gentle glow of his insides was tempting enough as is and watching the lean figure press itself closer. Begging for his interaction. 

Long, deadly claws retracted and dulled their tips as Harbinger willed the shell barrier to weaken as he reached through leaning himself inside. Shepard shuddered at the contact as claws grazed his thighs and slid around his back careful of the connections buried deep along his spine. If Shepard had enough of his senses spared to think over the strange nature of this situation, of being embraced by Harbinger even though his binds were still wrapped around his limbs, he would feel unsure. 

Harbinger gathered the loose strands of hair and reveled in the sensation of the texture flowing through his claws. Wrapping and drifting around his grasp, trailing the palm of his hand across the guard firmly secured over a mouth that had spout declarations to end him time and time again. Pride burned in his chest at the fact he had been the one conquest Shepard had failed. 

Shepard’s body arched reflexively to his touch, blue eyes were twisted shut against the waves of biting sensation that filled him with every caress of dulled points dragging across his skin. He couldn’t think….not a single thought could edge past the firm wave lashing at against his senses. The touches against his sides that trailed over his chest and lingered on the back of his neck were curious burning trails where his body seemed to open raw absorbing every brush that sent his senses spiraling into heights of ecstasy that sent his heart into a wild flurry. 

Harbinger buried deep in the junction of Shepard’s neck, sharp sensory glands could absorb the sharp scent of something moist and musky. The last remains of humanity, his scent would press deep in his memories for as long as he desired. The heat of his lust wasn’t lost and sharp eyes only had to glance downwards to see its effects.

Shepard was painfully erect and this part of him too was bound as thin cables were forced deep into the urethral opening to take of any basic needs he still had. Thick cables curled around his weight sac and between his thighs to fill even that part of him. Between thickly plated thighs a nearly invisible slit parted as the sharply edged ride of his erect cock made itself known, swelling as it lengthened in its arousal. The tip seemed as sharp as deadly as any blade and it grew thick leading to the base buried deep inside of Harbinger’s body. 

“Watch.” Shepard’s haze shattered with that word and the pleasure cut from his senses as his eyes flashed in clarity the same moment Harbinger’s claws ground their cocks together. His mind screamed at the sharp pain that filled his groin, the ridges caught and tugged at his flesh and burned them intensely. It didn’t stop as claws squeezed them together mercilessly and jerked at a vicious pace. 

Shepard’s mind filled with screams that broke into a moan, the soft ridges underneath tickled him obscenely and the tip was dangerously thin. He couldn’t tear his eyes away, couldn’t believe Harbinger was so close and grinding them to a violent orgasm. It was hot, burning pleasure it distracted his thoughts as sharp claws wandered toward his chest. Claws sank into his flesh and began to rip him open dragging slowly as he twisted agony bleeding through the haze. Dark blood filled the ooze as Harbinger tore deeper weak screams bled into the air as claws snapped hard against bone. 

His opposite claw dug harder crushing their cocks together into white hot agony as a sharp twist of his scaled palm forced Shepard’s back to arch as he dragged him to orgasm. Harbinger drank in the sight of blood staining his claws and how his flesh painfully sewed itself back together. He dragged his claws over his hips to watch it again, to see how his skin gaped with torn edges to gurgle with effort as it slowly melded together again. Harbinger’s deflated cock slid back into his body the tip thick with a dark red fluid as the he pulled his claws from the thick substance as the dark blood was forcibly broken down and dissipated into nothing. 

“Bastard, that hurt…” Shepard’s mouth weakly formed the words but his mind pressed them toward the Reaper whose eyes only seemed to catch a light of humor as he watched Shepard’s restraints tightened once more pulling him back to his original position.

“You seemed to enjoy it.” The Reaper’s retort left Shepard speechless for a moment as he glared simply and winced as the cable slid back inside of him, repairing what little flesh had been torn. He chuckled darkly as he pulled back to touch the shell barrier thoughtfully and looked at the deep scratches he had left before the shell began to repair itself as they disappeared.

“I will get free and I will kill you.” Shepard’s thoughts were firm as he reveled in the moments of clarity and Harbinger seemed to consider them for a moment.  
“You will never be free, Shepard. Not of this place, not of me.” It was pure force inside of his head, the pressure grinding hard against his resistance as sparks of pain bled behind his eyes. 

“You WILL submit.” Harbinger’s voice was a painful, agonizing thrum that filled his thoughts grinding against his resistance and digging into the cracks to edge them wider to force himself in. Flashes of anger shown in Harbinger’s gaze as the resistance against him remained. 

“There is no escape. No crew or ally to save you.” Shepard shuddered as he could see the darkness dragging into his vision and those marks spread like a disease over the shell barrier, squirming like snakes as they sealed out any light around him. 

“There is only darkness that awaits you.” Despair filled Shepard and closing his eyes did little to edge it away from the part of him that begged for release of his torment. Deep in his thoughts, he promised he would escape from Harbinger and warn whoever was left. Whatever was left in the galaxy that could be saved. It was the only hope he could nurture. Even if the darkness licking at the back of his mind whispered and dismissed his hopes.

The only thing you ache to save…is yourself…  
He closed his eyes and begged the horrors to leave him.


	5. Despair(Hope)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a minute to update! I've been really dicking around with what direction to go with this story since it's been a minute for me but no fear! I have outlined the last four chapters and it's gonna be one intense ride so stick with me!

Time was all Shepard now. Occasionally, Harbinger would come 'visit' him but it was only slightly more invasive then the constant hum of the Collector burrowed in the back of his mind. It felt like eons had passed and time was nothing but something to torture him further as it would break him into tiny pieces. Each hour, each day, he could feel the influence of the ship pressing into him deeper. A heavy feeling in his stomach pushed hard against his insides alongside a sense twisting into his mind.

He felt he was going insane. The more he considered it, the more hopeless it seemed and the weak flame of his hope flickered dangerously. Shepard clung onto it, even as it danced on the edge of defeat and things seemed as bleak as they felt.  
Shepard remained in his prison and began to focus on the surroundings around his small entrapment. Perhaps, perhaps he could find something to keep the world from closing in and turning its back upon him. His attention once more was drawn to the moving bodies outside of his door; the geth that wandered up and down the halls with maintenance for the ship, he presumed. Occasionally, he would see one of the many husk like abominations but his main focus centered one of the few geth that stepped into his room. 

After Harbinger started visiting him, geth began to step into his room and check his vitals. Sometimes they would even reach inside to give him physical examinations; checking connections along his spine, testing bits of his flesh and testing his fluids. They watched him with painfully technical gazes of light and touched him with only the intent of assuring his health. In a way, their careful touches were a relief. It told Shepard if anything, he could still feel even the most basic of touches. He didn't think much of the way his body was changing right under him with every moment he was connected to the Collector. Lights danced under his skin with touched, metal fibers weaved into his very muscles as they slipped under his flesh. 

He was losing everything. Even himself. 

"Shepard," the hard reaching clench of something firm and cold deep in his mind was impossible to ignore, "you are progressing better than anticipated." He glanced around and felt his mind shudder at the pressure taking over then pushing away all lingering thoughts. "You still cling to such foolish notions," it felt as though Harbinger were squeezing him in a warm embrace, his nerves tingled at the clench of cables wrapped around his body. 

"When will you realize that all your are has now become mine." It wasn't a question, no room to argue and Shepard felt something. A hard searing pain as if he was tearing from his very body. Every nerve. Ever fiber of his being screamed as his mind was viciously jerked away from the senses he held dear and he screamed, his body resisting but also he felt it shatter. Break into nothing. Shepard suddenly felt nothing. Saw nothing. Everything felt so disjointed, so broken and far away. He opened his eyes and saw nothing but waves of colors before him. An ocean of darkness trickled with red rippling through it. Flashes of codes and streaming tails of color drawn to something far away. 

"Where am I?" Shepard could only see around him but his own sense of self was gone. There was nothing to tell him apart from the madness, the things and sea of black around him.

"Away." Harbinger's grating voice seemed to come from everywhere as the whole ocean began to jerk as wildly as any water in a storm. Shepard could only vaguely feel the sharp presence of the Collector before it appeared. A flurry of that blackness came together twisting into a shape he vaguely recalled but became startingly haunting at the silvers of a bright and sharp red marking it. Shepard was shrinking away before he realized it. 

"You will," the apparition reached out and Shepard felt that strange, hard pulling sensation, "take shape." Pain, nothing but agony as he was crushed together from nothing and forced into being. Harbinger only chuckled at his plight and he felt that tight grip around his fleeting form once more. Shepard briefly thought of a leash, something to keep him anchored to the monster who lived through the ages. His form was nothing but a mass of blue with sharp points of white that held the vague shape of his body. His body! 

"Where's my body?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!" Shepard felt as though he was screaming but it felt like empty echoes even to his own mind and Harbinger only gave him the most curious of glances. 

"Back where it belongs. Your mind," Shepard shuddered at the way he was jerked to the creature's side and recoiled at the electric touch of...whatever they were meeting. "Your mind I have ripped out of that mold of flesh and into the consciousness of machines. Your flesh is nothing but a shell." That electric, biting touch again made him want to scream and it tremored through him as whiplash. 

"The mind of machines," Shepard couldn't think past that sensation; the biting sense that dug into ever part of him relighting those senses he thought were lost to him in this place. Harbinger pulled him closer and everything was a furious blaze of burning cooled to something that felt searing as if his very flesh was peeling away but there was no true pain. Just the lingering ghost of the sensation mixed into something that made him want to fall to his knees under its assault. He blearily wondered, as he had many times, what was wrong with him. Was his humanity so far gone that nothing was safe again? How far had Harbinger pulled him into the gaping abyss of his possessive desires? Despair. It filled him despite the sensations burying all other things inside of him. Shepard couldn't comprehend this, couldn't fathom where he was, what was happening or why it was his fate to suffer so long and so viciously at the hands of the one who had taken all. The sensations were the first thing ot fade and soon even he found himself hard pressed to care. A reverting chuckle filled his mind and he let himself fall into darkness to be free of it. Free of Harbinger. Even if it was only a temporary escape. 

When Shepard opened his eyes again, he was back inside of the shell of his cage. The gentle sounds of fingers moving over a keyboard stirred him to conscious and his eyes, heavy with sleep, looked over. The sleek shape of a geth at the screens was more reassuring than Shepard thought it would be. Exhausted mentally, he shifted toward the geth whose back was to him as it was completely engrossed in its work. His mind was shaken and all he could see was the beckoning of the one of the lost. The one whose death affected him the most and brought what remnants of tears he could summon to his eyes still. 

The geth moved suddenly to leave and Shepard felt a sudden, grave panic as if he would lose everything all over again if they left. 

"Wait," his own voice was lost in his prison but he pushed his voice with an echo of desperation. It stopped short of the softly hissing doors and for a moment long enough Shepard began to question if he had any effect at all. The horror of suddenly being alone was too much to bear. An unthinkable thought that felt as though it would crush him. 

"Please, don't leave." Shepard almost forgot what it was like to speak. The stretch of muscles inside of his body, the push of words that pooled from his thoughts to the delicate mechanics. It felt good. Felt human. 

A sudden shine of light jerked Shepard out of his thoughts and the geth was there. Standing in front of him, focusing that bright as if awaiting his orders. Shepard felt a numb feeling running through his senses as he reached forward and the geth mirrored him. The smooth surface of his prison between them as their hands pressed opposite from one another. Shepard felt as though he would shatter. Break into a million pieces as the burn of his eyes forced him to close them tight as he couldn't stop the cry rising from the bowels of his chest. How much more would he have to lose? 

"Shepard-Commander," he froze at the words and disbelief made him still as the geth pushed past the barrier and that oddly warm hand stroked his cheek, "it is ineffectual to cry." Shepard was at a loss. 

"Leon," the touch felt so warm, "we will never forsake you." Shepard couldn't stop the cry that fell from his lips this time as he desperately hiccuped out the geth's true name, "Legion." It was a different body, a different feel but it was the geth that Shepard had loved as deeply as he could have love any for a man whose being belonged to eveything but to himself. 

"Time. Give us time." Legion spoke quietly for a machine and Shepard only nodded, desperate to cling to something that had been so dear to him being before his eyes once more. "Time." Legion repeated quietly and he stepped back much to Shepard's disapproval, leaving the room but the touch still lingered. 

Freedom. All it needed was time. Shepard closed his eyes and briefly saw the flicker he barely grasped spark into a flame.  
Escape. If Shepard could not have saved himself, he would try to save others. Even if they were not his own kind, not anymore.

A new cycle, a new harvest.  
And he would be there to try to stop it.


End file.
